I've been going through the 2024 Monster Manual and I really like what I see so far in terms of new monsters, running monsters, and making sure monsters actually meet their CR. I also really like the 2024 encounter building rules. However, the two groups I'm DMing at the moment both have decided to keep playing by the 2014 rules. Is there any guidance on throwing 2024 monsters at 2014 players? I ran a low-level threat against four Level 6 players that went great, but I'm not sure what's going to happen if I throw a moderate- or high-level threat at characters in my games. Any thoughts on using 2024 monsters against 2014 players?
Both PCs and monsters are somewhat more powerful in 2024, but the difference is not super dramatic, probably on the order of 20%, and some monsters are actually less powerful. However, I would be wary of using the encounter building rules even for 2024 PCs, because removing the group size adjustment means monster groups are extremely powerful. For example, building Hard encounters for 4 level 6 PCs (budget 5,600)
A single monster is CR 9. I don't have the 2024 MM yet and there aren't any CR 9s in the free rules, but a CR 8 Tyrannosaurus Rex is attack +10/58 dpr and ac 13/136 hp, a CR 10 Stone Golem is attack +10/48 dpr and ac 18/220 hp, so we can average that at attack +10/53 dpr and ac 16/178 hp.
Eight monsters is CR 3 each; say, [monsters]vampire familiar[/monster]. That has attack +5/26 dpr and ac 15/65 hp, for a combined total of attack +5/208 dpr and ac 15/520 hp.
The first encounter is... fine. It is reasonably likely to take three rounds, though if they really go nova it could end in two. It's got a good chance to see one or two PCs at zero hp, but against a party with healing resources, no big deal.
The second encounter is... not fine. Sure, it's going to have a lot of missing, and it's pretty vulnerable to area damage, but it's not that vulnerable to area damage, if we assume a party of 4 has a cleric, a wizard, and two weapon types, it takes about two rounds to clear them with fireball and spirit guardians, and the monsters can reliably take out one of those, with a decent chance of both, in round 1, and since they have paralyze at 0, no bringing people back up with healing potions, need lesser restoration.
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I've been going through the 2024 Monster Manual and I really like what I see so far in terms of new monsters, running monsters, and making sure monsters actually meet their CR. I also really like the 2024 encounter building rules. However, the two groups I'm DMing at the moment both have decided to keep playing by the 2014 rules. Is there any guidance on throwing 2024 monsters at 2014 players? I ran a low-level threat against four Level 6 players that went great, but I'm not sure what's going to happen if I throw a moderate- or high-level threat at characters in my games. Any thoughts on using 2024 monsters against 2014 players?
Both PCs and monsters are somewhat more powerful in 2024, but the difference is not super dramatic, probably on the order of 20%, and some monsters are actually less powerful. However, I would be wary of using the encounter building rules even for 2024 PCs, because removing the group size adjustment means monster groups are extremely powerful. For example, building Hard encounters for 4 level 6 PCs (budget 5,600)
The first encounter is... fine. It is reasonably likely to take three rounds, though if they really go nova it could end in two. It's got a good chance to see one or two PCs at zero hp, but against a party with healing resources, no big deal.
The second encounter is... not fine. Sure, it's going to have a lot of missing, and it's pretty vulnerable to area damage, but it's not that vulnerable to area damage, if we assume a party of 4 has a cleric, a wizard, and two weapon types, it takes about two rounds to clear them with fireball and spirit guardians, and the monsters can reliably take out one of those, with a decent chance of both, in round 1, and since they have paralyze at 0, no bringing people back up with healing potions, need lesser restoration.